Religion News: New hotels won’t carry religious books

Thursday

Dec 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM

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WEEK IN RELIGIONThe world’s largest hotel company will no longer place Bibles or the Book of Mormon in rooms of its newly constructed and to-be constructed hotels. In its new Moxy and Edition hotels, which are millennial-oriented brands, Marriott International recently announced that despite carrying the Bible and the Book of Mormon in its other hotels, the religious books will not be supplied in the rooms. “It’s because the religious books don’t fit the personality of the brands,” Marriott spokeswoman Felcia Farrar McLemore said. Marriott International isn’t the only hotel company to stop the practice. According to a recent study by hospitality analytics company STR found that the percentage of hotels that offer religious books has fallen in the past 10 years, from 95 percent in 2006 to only an estimated 48 percent in 2016. The hotel industry has also been pressured by non-religious groups to stop carrying religious material. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is a nonprofit group dedicated to the separation of church and state, asked 15 major hotel companies to take Bibles out of their rooms last year. So far, Marriott International has opened nine Moxy hotels with 40 more under construction or in the planning phase and has opened four Edition hotels, with nine more scheduled to open in the near future.— More Content Now

SURVEY SAYSMost educated religionsAccording to a new survey, Jews are more highly educated than any other religious groups. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, Jews have the highest number of years of schooling with an average of 13.4 years, while Christians are second with an average of 9.3 years. Muslims and Hindus were the lowest with each having an average of 5.6 years, while the religiously unaffiliated came in third with an 8.8 year average. Despite the survey showing a vast gap between the groups, it also found that education levels are rising globally with a 7.7 year average.— More Content Now

GOOD BOOK?“What Falls from the Sky: How I Disconnected from the Internet and Reconnected with the God Who Made the Clouds” by Esther EmeryEsther Emery was a successful playwright and theater director, wife and mother, and loving it all — until, suddenly, she wasn’t. When a personal and professional crisis of spectacular extent leaves her reeling, Esther is left empty, alone in her marriage, and grasping for identity that does not define itself by busyness and a breakneck pace of life. Something had to be done. “What Falls from the Sky” is Esther’s fiercely honest, piercingly poetic account of a year without Internet — 365 days away from the good, the bad, and the ugly of our digital lives — in one woman’s desperate attempt at a reset. Esther faces her addiction to electronica, her illusion of self-importance, and her longing to return to simpler days, but then the unexpected happens. Her experiment in analog is hijacked by a spiritual awakening, and Esther finds herself suddenly, inexplicably drawn to the faith she had rejected for so long.— Zondervan

THE WORDpantheist: A worshipper of all gods or one who believes that God and the universe are one.— ReligionStylebook.com